


Love Love Love

by conniptionns



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: F/M, M/M, but matt and dan are also dating?, it's a whole thing, matt and neil are kind of dating?, this is mattneil softness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 12:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10411806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conniptionns/pseuds/conniptionns
Summary: 81: "you're too good for this world"





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really really bad at summaries, and I'm still naming fics after songs. I'm every writer I've ever complained about :D

There was nothing Neil Josten loved more in this world than exy. Not even his own survival, he was sure his mother would scream at him if she were here. Neil loved everything that had to do with exy and surviving meant existing without it, he was sure that he would rather die. I mean we all have to die anyway, why not do it running down the court with a racquet in your grip.

Exy also was a great way to make friends who had things in common with you, those things mostly being exy, because Neil didn’t have very many hobbies going into college. But he met people like Andrew, that showed him that it was okay to stop running; people like Nicky who showed him that finding your own family was more important than the one that you were given; people like Aaron to appreciate the people who weren’t like Aaron; people like Kevin, to talk about exy with; people like Dan to look up to; people like Allison to be a best friend to someone who never really experienced it before; people like Renee to show you what it was like to be loved unconditionally; and then there were people like Matt, who were sort of all of those things combined. Neil didn’t think that people like the Foxes could exist as a singular entity, but to exist as a collected whole in one person really blew Neil’s mind.

Neil spent a lot of time with Matt. That was a given. It was almost intoxicating to be around someone who made you feel excited to be alive in a way you hadn’t realize existed before, but also was very calm and let you experience things at your own pace. It was new and it was wild, and if Neil spent a lot of time with Matt, even more time was spent with all of the Foxes. Because Neil was learning what it meant to choose your family, and he chose all of the Foxes, yes even Aaron.

Matt and Neil’s bromance was an interesting thing, because without the ‘bro’ it probably wouldn’t exist, but it was definitely a lot more than just bro. It was an unspoken thing that was understood by Dan as a symbiotic support system that both men needed. Matt loved Neil, and in his own way, Neil loved Matt too. It could almost be described as platonic, except that it was too complex to ever be characterized as that. Matt and Neil were fine never defining it, and none of the other Foxes thought it was their place to force them to define it.

If Dan came home to Matt and Neil kissing softly on the couch, it didn’t faze her anymore. More often than not, though, when she came home they would either be playing video games, studying, or Neil would be napping on top of Matt. Dan loved when Neil was napping, he didn’t sleep nearly enough and he looked so small sprawled out on her 6’4 boyfriend.

Sometimes, Matt would even join Kevin, Andrew, and Neil for late night practices. Those nights Andrew was more willing to come on the court and challenge Neil. It took one time of Neil blowing out his arms for Matt to come be a silent sentry that sat sleepily in the stands until Neil could reassure Matt that he would never push himself that hard again.

The late-night practices had paid off and the Foxes were going to the playoffs. They were having their own little banquet with the Vixens to celebrate before they went, Kevin was wholeheartedly unamused but stuck around because Andrew insisted. The Fox ladies had teamed up with the Vixens to come up with little awards for everyone that were going to be handed out after the dinner that Wymack and the two Vixen coaches had got together to make.

Neil didn’t make it to dessert before he slumped onto Matt’s shoulder and went to sleep. The older man only grinned down at him and shifted so that he could lay more comfortably in his lap. Matt’s sad eyes had been enough to make Dan pull Neil’s legs up into her lap on the other side of him. Matt took to gently scratching his fingers through Neil’s curly hair and Dan ran her nails up and down on his ankle. And Neil slept through Matt’s name being called. Matt waved at Allison and pointed at Neil sleeping in his lap. Renee ended up walking his award over, and Neil’s as well when his name was called.

Neil woke up when Dan’s name was called and lifted his feet for her to stand before laying them back on her chair. He turned and looked up at Matt with sleepy confusion and blinked for a second.

“Neil, you’re too good for this world,” Matt told him before booping his nose.

Neil giggled in response, shocking most of the Foxes into silence.

Dan and Renee quickly distracted them again, but Andrew noticed. From then on Andrew was more likely to bump Neil’s nose with his knuckle when they sat together on the couch and practiced Russian. Matt had never been more proud, all he wanted for Neil was love love love.


End file.
